


Always Know Where You Are

by hufflepirate



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Family Feels, Family Reunions, Food Fight, Gen, Half-Siblings, Healing, Late Night Conversations, Magic, Minor Injuries, Napping, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Platonic Cuddling, Prayer, Separation Anxiety, Separations, Sibling Bonding, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-18 08:34:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21991273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflepirate/pseuds/hufflepirate
Summary: When a teleportation spell goes wrong for the Shorthalt-Trickfoot family, they end up in two groups, miles apart. Pike and Scanlan have feelings about being separated from their kids. Grog has uncle responsibilities. Kaylie opens up to her sister. The kids think about what they want to be when they grow up. Everybody works hard to get reunited.Response to the prompts: fatherhood, fears, tiny baby gnomes, the wrong place at the wrong time. Also a tiny-to-teeny-tiny smattering of the prompts: healing, polymorph, growing old[er], and differences in lifespans.[Title from the song from Treasure Planet]
Relationships: Grog Strongjaw & Pike Trickfoot, Kaylie & Scanlan Shorthalt, Scanlan Shorthalt & Grog Strongjaw, Scanlan Shorthalt & Grog Strongjaw & Pike Trickfoot, Scanlan Shorthalt/Pike Trickfoot
Comments: 23
Kudos: 68
Collections: Critmas Exchange 2019





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Settiai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/gifts).



> On the one hand, 4 kids is a lot. On the other hand, writing fanbabies is fun and the prompt said "tiny baby gnomes" plural? Anyway, here's the kids and their relative ages:
> 
> Mina (short for Wilhelmina): oldest child, gnomish equivalent of mid-to-late teens  
> Ash and Alder: twins, gnomish equivalent of pre-teens/middle schoolers  
> Ray: youngest child, his parents think of him as a toddler but he's actually a little past that, into young child territory

Grog never felt quite as much like they were all getting older as he did when the whole family stood in a circle, holding hands for Scanlan to teleport them.

It was nice having Kaylie with them, especially now that Ray was big enough to stand on his own and adding Kaylie meant having a grown-up between each of the kids in their circle. It had taken him a while to get used to her, and, when he was willing to admit it, a while to forgive her for Scanlan running off for so long, but he'd gotten to like her in the years since, and it was also nice to have her around in general.

Mina squeezed his hand and he squeezed gently back, careful not to crush her little gnome fingers. On his other side, Ash was squeezing his hand tightly enough that it very nearly hurt, even though Ash's hands were even smaller than Mina's.

Scanlan started muttering the incantation, and everything swirled around them.

They were going home to Westruun, like they'd done plenty of times before, when all of a sudden, the wind around them started howling louder than it should have. Forces were pulling at them from all sides, tugging one way and the other in sudden, violent shifts that nearly wrenched them apart. Grog growled, and Pike shouted for everyone to hold on, as some kind of fog whirled across their vision.

They tumbled back and forth in the maelstrom, still in their circle, and something was _definitely wrong_ , but without letting go of his niece and nephew, there was nothing he could do about it. He kept holding on.

"I can feel us getting closer," Scanlan yelled, his voice sounding strained, "We're gonna land soon! Keep holding on!"

For 15 seconds, they did. 20. 25.

"Mama!" Ash screamed, the sound high pitched and terrified, shrill over the howl of the wind.

Grog couldn't see Pike. He couldn't even see Ash's empty hand. But he could feel the way the wind pulled Ash away from the rest of the circle, tugging the group out into a straight line.

He squeezed Ash's hand harder, feeling bones crunch under his fingers, and set his jaw. Pike would fix it. Pike would take care of him. Grog just had to _keep him with them_.

The wind flung their end of the line suddenly in the other direction, and Grog could see part of the circle again, could see Ash's empty hand reaching desperately out into the storm, and Mina's face screwed up with effort as she clung to him and Kaylie, holding them together, and even half of Kaylie's face on Mina's other side as she -

Kaylie suddenly looked horrified, but before she was halfway through shouting, "Alder, no!" all four of them were suddenly falling, toppling downward and away through the mist and wind.

Kaylie's other hand was empty. Alder's wasn't in it.

This wasn't right. This _definitely wasn't right_.

Alder screamed for his twin and Ash screamed back, but the sounds were lost in the chaos and Grog let his instincts take over, pulling Ash and Mina's arms in toward him until he could get both of them and Kaylie in one big, solid bear hug, tucked against his chest where he could keep the wind from tearing them away.

They clung on to his arms and he tried to twist around in the air to land on his back so that he could cushion them from the fall, but he wasn't actually sure which way was up, so it was all guesswork and hope.

Kaylie saw the ground before he did, her eyes widening.

They hit the ground sideways, plummeting too fast for him to rotate all the way around. In a surprising show of strength, Kaylie ripped Mina's hand from his grasp and twisted herself and Mina sideways within the circle of his arms, landing underneath Mina and taking the brunt of what Grog hadn't managed to catch. Grog took most of the force of the first impact, but Kaylie scraped her side badly as they skidded across the ground, coming slowly to a stop.

Ash wrapped his tiny arms around Grog's chest, as far as he could reach, and Grog rolled over and sat up, huddling the boy closer. Ash was crying and apologizing, and the whole thing was one big rush of words and tears. Grog carefully shifted Ash upward in his grip, so his nephew could bury his face in the fur on his shoulder, but tuned out the rest as a problem for later. He looked around them and let Ash rearrange at will, the boy pulling in on himself and clinging tightly to the strap of Grog's pauldron with his right hand. Grog could feel Ash's knuckles pressing hard into his skin under the leather, held down by the strap he was holding.

Mina was shaking but had made it to her feet, standing protectively next to Kaylie in a broad, solid stance he recognized from all these years of knowing Pike. The sunlight in her hair picked out reddish highlights that kept her from looking quite like her mother had when they were young, but there was still something of Pike there, these days, that hadn't always been so obvious.

Kaylie muttered an incantation as she stood up and dusted herself off and the scrapes on the side of her arm started to heal up, scabbing over and drying out as the bruises around them faded to an ugly yellow-green. Another incantation made a dent in Grog's bruises and scrapes, making his breath come a little bit easier.

They were safe. Sort of. Probably.

Pike, Scanlan and the others were nowhere to be seen.

Grog clambered to his feet, his hand moving toward the handle of his hammer, just in case.

******

The second they hit the ground, Pike knew the other half of the circle was gone. There was no missing Grog's absence or the emptiness in her left hand. Ash was gone. Mina was gone. Kaylie and Grog were _gone_. Alder made a strangled little noise of distress and twisted sideways to bury his face in Scanlan's chest.

Her heart sunk in her chest like solid lead. Scanlan let go of Ray's hand to wrap his arm around Alder's shoulders, and she moved to scoop Ray up onto her hip in a half-daze.

She wasn't sure how long it was before anyone spoke.

"I'm sorry, Papa," Alder sobbed, his voice muffled against Scanlan's shirt. "I tried to catch him. I _promise_ I tried to catch him. But then Kaylie was gone too, and I couldn't even catch _her_ again, and I promise I tried!"

"I know," Scanlan said, his eyes not quite focusing as he gazed vaguely into the air over Alder's head and rubbed his back with one hand, "I know. You did good. I tried to hold the spell and you tried to keep us together and everybody tried to hold on. We all tried."

 _We all tried_. Not even his most comforting play. That was alright. He was rattled. She was, too.

"Mama?" Ray asked, his tiny voice sending sharp little shards of pain through her heart, "Where did everybody go?"

"I don't know, Ray-way. But we're gonna find them. Remember how Uncle Grog tells that story of when we and our friends went and found _him_? It'll be just like that."

"I can't Wish anymore." Scanlan said hollowly, the hand on Alder's back still moving mechanically back and forth. He sounded nothing like his usual cheerful, blustering self, and Pike forced a smile to make up for it, taking her turn as the confident one instead.

"We don't _need_ a Wish. We'll do it without one." She was pleased to hear her voice come out certain, in spite of everything.

Ray pulled on the collar of her shirt. "It's ok, Mama. _I_ can wish. I wish we could find them _very fast_."

Scanlan pulled Alder closer, burying his face in their son's dark hair so that she couldn't see his expression anymore.

She knew he must be feeling guilty. She knew he must be feeling like he'd failed. A little, petty part of her almost wanted to let him feel it. But she found after another heartbeat had passed that she didn't have it in her. Ash's hand had slipped from hers and neither of them had been able to stop it, and now he was gone. He was _gone_. But that had rarely stopped her before, and it wasn't going to stop her now.

She took a deep breath. "Most of our friends are pretty far away from Westruun. But I bet if we go to the temple, I can get some help with scrying. I'm not as good at it as Keyleth, but if I can find _anybody_ , it'll be them. And then maybe I can even project over to them."

Scanlan didn't look up, but he did nod, his face still buried in Alder's hair, and that was enough for now.

She took one more deep breath. "Alright, Ray-way. You ready to see Mama go to work?"

******

As Grog took stock of the land around them and found no obvious dangers, his heart rate settled down and he gradually realized that Ash wasn't trying to talk at all anymore, just crying into his shoulder. He raised a hand and placed it lightly on the boy's back, being careful not to hurt him, as always.

Mina gasped. "Ash!"

She ran over, feet pounding the ground as loudly as Pike's always did, and climbed directly up Grog's leg to get closer to her brother.

Grog looked down and realized, for the first time, that when Ash rearranged, he'd pulled his left hand in toward his body, curling around it. The hand and wrist were swelling dramatically, already an ugly swirl of red and purple, and Grog suddenly remembered the bones cracking in his hands.

His face burned, and he had to breathe deeply to fight back his own rage.

He loosened his grip on Ash, breathing in and out through his nose, and Mina grabbed the strap of his pauldron to pull herself up within reach of Ash's arm. She tucked herself into Grog's side, planting a foot firmly on his forearm for balance, and reached for Ash's wrist. He recognized the healing spell she cast even as she rattled the incantation off twice in a row without stopping in the middle.

The bones straightened, the swelling went down, and the ugly color faded. Ash sniffled, letting go of Grog's pauldron with the good hand and wiping his nose on his sleeve.

"I-It's ok. Uncle Grog didn't let go," he said, his voice shaky, "He didn't let go."

Something close to rage burned in the back of Mina's eyes as she turned to look up at Grog's face, and he kept breathing carefully, staying calm.

"I wasn't gonna lose you," he answered, his voice tight, "I wasn't gonna let you get lost and disappear. Not _ever_."

Ash flung his arms around as much of Grog's chest as he could reach again, and Grog ran one finger of his free hand down the middle of Ash's back, hoping it was both comforting and gentle enough.

Mina studied Grog's face and he forced himself to stay calm. Stay calm. Be Uncle Grog. Keep the situation in hand. Mina's eyes softened a little, the anger in them fading, and Grog breathed a little easier.

"Well, _that_ was not how I thought this was gonna go," Kaylie said. "Leave it to our father to find the _one_ storm in the in-between place."

Grog made a little offended noise before his mind had even caught up, and Kaylie laughed.

"It's alright, big guy. If Dad were here, he'd know I don't mean it. Mostly."

Mina turned from her scrutiny of Grog's face and started looking just as intently around them. She'd always been smart, and that sharp gaze was a little less intimidating now that it was turned away from him. "Where are we?" she asked.

"I don't know," he answered, "But it's not Westruun, and we don't know where the rest of them are, so we're gonna have to find them."

"How?" Ash asked.

Grog turned to look at Kaylie, "Do - uh - I don't know what you learned at school, but -"

Kaylie sighed. "Nothin' for this. I could maybe half-remember how to do a teleportation circle thing, not that I actually know a circle to go to, either. But even if I _could_ do it, I didn't bring chalk and I'm not exactly excited to teleport again anyway."

Grog could see Mina's face falling, and Ash, out of pain now, looked around them with wide eyes. That wasn't going to work. He needed to keep everybody calm. Uncle Grog. Reliable grownup. Grand Poobah de Doink of All This And That. He could do this. He lifted his chin. "Ok," he said, "So we walk."

Mina sighed. "Yeah, I guess so. I don't know how to do any of Mom's _cool_ cleric stuff yet." She scrambled up onto his shoulder instead of dropping down to the ground, and he made sure to hold himself extra still until she was comfortably settled. All of the baby gnomes had been impossibly tiny when they were born, and Ray mostly still was, but he trusted the others to hold on when they were climbing around on top of him.

Kaylie snorted fondly as she watched them, stepping backward to get a better view and ending up in a pose that looked as much like Scanlan as Mina had looked like Pike. Not that he'd tell _Kaylie_ that.

"Want a ride?" he asked, still cradling Ash against his chest, "I have two shoulders."

"What do I look like? A baby? I'm gonna scout around a little. See if I can find any distinguishing landmarks."

"What if you need help?"

She gestured to her ear. "Earring. You know how paranoid Dad is. I still check everything I own for a scrying device every time I leave, you know. He insisted I have one of these, too, not that I usually _want_ it in when it's the whole group of us."

Grog nodded. "In case Pike and Scanlan get mushy." He was happy for Pike and Scanlan, just like he was happy for Vex and Percy, but sometimes they forgot he had an earring too, at least if Keyleth wasn't around to make them pay closer attention.

"Eww." Ash supplied.

"I know, right?" He almost said something about sex, but caught himself. He wasn't supposed to, around the babies, and just because Mina and Ash weren't actually babies anymore probably didn't mean he could start.

"I can go with you," Mina said from her spot on his shoulder, "I'm out of healing spells and I can't do Guiding Bolt anymore, but I can still sacred flame a little, and make light and noises and stuff. Mom says I'm getting pretty good at it!"

"Nobody's going anywhere," Grog said. "Not until we figure out what we already know."

"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to _do_ ," Kaylie answered, impatient. She looked over toward Mina. "And I think it's better I stay on my own for now, short stuff. You're about as stealthy as your mam, no offense intended."

Grog frowned. "No, you're trying to find out _more_ things than we know. Pike says do one thing at a time first, if you gotta think through a problem. You're doing two."

Kaylie sighed. "Yeah, alright. What is it you figure we know?"

"We know it's not mountains," he answered, "And we're not in a swamp, and we're not in the woods. That's lots of places we aren't."

Kaylie nodded. "Alright. So where else aren't we?"

"We're not _very_ far north," Mina said, "Because it isn't that cold."

"Do you think Dad got us close?" Ash asked, tentatively.

"I think he tried to," Grog answered, "So maybe we start off thinking he probably did."

Kaylie hummed as she thought.

"Does the spell take us in a straight line?" Mina asked, looking toward Kaylie.

"The wind was bad," Ash said, almost a whisper.

"The wind's not your fault," Grog said, "It just happened. And now we gotta figure it out. But that's ok. Pike's good at figuring stuff out, and you guys are smart like Pike."

"Dad's mostly just stubborn," Kaylie said thoughtfully, "Not my _least_ favorite thing to have gotten from him, though. He and your mam'll be looking for _us_ , too."

Grog nodded. "I bet Pike finds us in no time. But until she gets here, I'm gonna look after you."

" _We're_ gonna look after them," Kaylie corrected. "Dad can say all the sappy shite he wants about me bein' his daughter and all, but I'm still plenty able to look after myself."

"I bet the wind blew us off course," Mina said, "But we were all moving together, at least, so I bet we were going in a straight line until we fell. I just don't know which way we fell, 'cause it was all jumbled."

"Not north," Grog answered, happy for the excuse not to decide whether he was supposed to be taking care of Kaylie or not. On the one hand, she was right, and she was a grownup, and she'd always been a grownup since he'd met her, but on the other hand, he'd gotten awfully used to being Uncle Grog and she'd even been teasing him the other day about the grey in his beard, so he was probably still a more grownuppy grownup than she was. More or less.

"Hmm." Kaylie hummed thoughtfully.

"What does that mean?" Ash asked. "Is it like - do we follow which way we think we fell, or do we look the other way?"

"We go north," Grog said.

"Yeah," Kaylie agreed. "I don't remember a ton of geography, not like I should, probably, but if we know we didn't fall too far north, then we go north and then when we find out where we are, we at least didn't go farther away from home."

"There's no plains to the north," Grog said, "Not ones this big. So we can see what we run into first, and if it's mountains, we'll have fewer places we can be, and if it's a river, we can follow it until there's stuff, and if it's a forest, we can try to work out which one."

"That's... pretty good." Kaylie said, sounding impressed.

"Yeah, I know. I'm good with geogretry."

"You sure are, big guy."

They started walking. Mina hummed a song in his ear. Ash scrambled up out of his arms to sit on his other shoulder. Kaylie added scattered words and harmonies at random into Mina's song, all in bits and snatches.

Grog worried, now that he wasn't thinking so hard, about what he was going to do if Pike and Scanlan _weren't_ here very soon, but he kept walking, and at least they had that. And at least the kids seemed to be in good spirits. Usually, it was Scanlan who kept everybody in good spirits, but it was nice to know that in a pinch, he could do it, too.

******

The hustle and bustle of the Temple of Sarenrae got more and more intense around theem as word spread that two of the Trickfoot children had gone missing. When Alder thrust his hand into his father's, Scanlan took it gratefully, running his thumb gently over the back of the knuckles. Alder stepped closer and leaned into his side, propping his head against Scanlan's upper arm, and Scanlan squeezed his hand gently, hoping it would feel reassuring.

Pike had been very clear, when she was explaining the situation, that it was _three_ of their children who they were missing, and she'd used their hyphenated name, as usual, and in another moment, he might have minded the people at the temple changing it around and corrected them.

As it was, he wasn't going to feel like himself until he knew Ash, Mina, and Kaylie were safe. He felt dazed, like part of him had vanished with the other half of the circle, and he couldn't reach the missing part to put himself back together.

Pike finished the set-up she could with Ray tucked in one arm, and came over to him and Alder looking as serious as she ever had. This was Pike the Monstah, Pike the smiter of undead, Pike who slew dragons. His heart swelled painfully with love for her, and he felt, all at once, a little more himself.

He knew she was handing Ray off to him before she could say a word and took him without letting go of Alder's hand, Ray cooperating with the hand-over and clinging tightly to Scanlan's shirt once he was in his dad's grip. He looked back and forth between Scanlan and Pike with wide eyes, as if he recognized the seriousness of the moment.

"Why can't I go with Mama?" he asked once Pike had stepped away, whispering into Scanlan's ear.

"Only Mama can see," Scanlan explained, "The rest of us just have to wait."

He frowned, his forehead crinkling with displeasure. "Don't wanna wait. I wanna _see_."

Scanlan rested his forehead gently against Ray's. "Some day, Ray-way. If you wanna be like Mama when you grow up, then some day you will."

"I wanna be like _you_ ," Alder said, still leaning into his shoulder, "then I could teleport us to where they are and we could all go home."

Alder sounded sad, which sent another wave of emptiness through Scanlan's chest. He rearranged, pulling his hand out of Alder's and wrapping his arm over Alder's shoulders instead so he could tug him gently into a hug. Alder twisted sideways and hugged him around the middle, and Scanlan squeezed him tighter in response.

"I used to be able to see far away sometimes, too," he said, "But I needed some help from our friend Gilmore. And Kaylie won't let me look in on her anymore."

"Oh," Alder said, "Will she be mad at Mom for looking in on her?"

"Probably not. She's always liked Pike better than me."

"That's not true."

Alder sounded dead serious, stating a fact instead of offering a platitude, and he found himself laughing in spite of everything.

"It's not!" Alder protested.

"No, no, you're right. I'm just the one she's more likely to get mad at."

Pike was stepping up onto the dais the temple had helped prepare for her scrying ritual. She looked over at the group and smiled, her face looking less like a warrior and more like the kids' mother as it softened, and she knelt down onto the floor next to the ornate, golden basin of holy water. When her eyes closed, she became something else, again, something neither warrior nor mother, but radiant and peaceful and already holy, even though she hadn't yet started to incant.

Scanlan hugged both sons tighter. They watched, rapt, as Pike chhanted, her holy symbol lighting up and bathing her face in a soft, golden glow.

When her eyes opened again, they were empty and shining, all golden light and no pupils, and Alder's arms tightened suddenly around him.

"It's alright," he whispered, "She's ok. She's just not looking at something that's here. She's looking for the others."

Pike's head tilted downward, her whole body leaning in toward the surface of the holy water as she gasped. "There! I see them!"

"Are they alright?" he asked, raising his voice so she could hear, "Can you hear them? Can they hear _you_?"

"They're ok. They're walking. They're together."

He breathed deeply, relieved.

"I can't tell where they are." Pike continued.

"What's around them?" he asked.

"It's hard to see. It's just grass and sky, and then it all goes fuzzy."

"Is Kaylie there?"

"It's _all_ of them, Scanlan. They're ok."

"Mina and Ash?"

"On Grog's shoulders."

"Is Uncle Grog gonna come home?" Ray asked, whispering in Scanlan's ear again.

"Try to listen," Scanlan said to Pike, "Do they know where they are? Are they trying to come home?"

"Don't interrupt, Scanlan, I know what I'm doing!."

He almost acknowledged the order, but bit it back at the last moment. Instead, he whispered an answer to Ray. "We're gonna try our best to get everybody home soon."

Pike tilted her head sideways, listening harder. A smile spread across her face, fond and relieved. "I don't know where they think they are," she said, "Or if they even _know_. But they're singing. Mina and Kaylie. I'm not even sure they know they're doing it."

"What's Ash doing?" Alder asked, and Scanlan didn't tell him off for interrupting his mom.

"He's looking in front of them. Shading his eyes. I think he's looking for something. But I can't see what."

She turned her head suddenly to the side, shushing them again and leaning her ear farther toward the surface of the water.

Alder pulled away from Scanlan's side a little bit as they waited, bouncing impatiently on his heels, and Scanlan let him, keeping an arm loosely over his shoulders and trying not to feel the loss of the hug too hard.

"They _don't_ know where they are," she said, "But they're going north. They think there's probably something in the north to tell them how to get to us. But they don't see anything yet. I'm - we'll wait with them. We have - there's more time."

Her voice sounded wistful, getting sadder even as his own spirits started to lift. Scanlan nodded, focusing on the good news. "Stay with them," he said, "Me and the boys will start trying to work out what else we can do. You're doing some early spellcasting stuff in school, aren't you, Ald?"

"I mean, we're learning the letters for magic stuff, if that's helpful," he answered, shrugging the rest of the way out from under Scanlan's arm.

"Every little bit counts."

"Are you sure?"

"Ioun's sure. She's all _about_ learning stuff."

He didn't talk about Ioun much. He didn't even _think_ about her much, which probably wasn't great, for a champion. But Pike was watching Kaylie and Mina and Ash, and he'd never learned that particular trick, and he felt it pretty intensely, just now. But maybe, _maybe_ he could make Ioun listen, in spite of everything, if it was for his children, and maybe he could talk her out of just a _little_ bit of divine magic, even if he _hadn't_ studied the right things.

"Oh," Alder said, "Are - are _you_ gonna try and pray?"

He tried not to take the tone of the question as an insult. "I don't know yet, Ald. We'll find out."

Scanlan had said they were going to go. He'd said they were going to start their research. But Alder didn't move, beyond taking his hand back, and when Scanlan didn't move, either, Alder started swinging their hands back and forth, back and forth. Scanlan swung with him and stayed rooted to his spot, and what he'd said be damned.

It was often hard to keep his eyes off Pike's face, and even with her eyes blank and glowing and weirdly pupil-less, he couldn't bring himself to look away now.

She'd stopped narrating, but knowing she could see the rest of their family was entrancing.

He and Alder swung their hands and Ray chewed on Scanlan's collar nervously, even though he was getting a little old for that, and all three of them kept watching Pike.

******

Kaylie had never done much babysitting. She'd never been the type of person people asked, and she'd never been inclined toward it, and by the time Mina was old enough that she'd thought maybe she could handle one half-sister, the twins had come along, and now there was Ray being mystifyingly young, though it was helpful that he was at least old enough to talk now.

She ran through everything she knew about kids as she walked, singing absentmindedly along with Mina with her brain somewhere else.

Grog would be good at physically protecting the kids, Ash's crushed wrist notwithstanding, which was good. And Mina was at least technically a cleric now, even if she _was_ still mostly a kid. Kaylie had some idea of how to work with a cleric.

This was gonna be fine. Just a little road trip. She could play it off as an adventure. Her half-siblings had always looked up to her anyway, so they'd go along with it if she did. Wouldn't they? There were a little old to convince that this was just a fun excursion, especially after they'd literally fallen out of the sky, but she could be pretty damned persuasive when she wanted to.

A shiver ran down her spine, but after a moment she realized it felt familiar. Her hand moved to the top of her scabbard automatically, flicking open the little compartment her father had had installed and confirming that it was empty and clean, just like she'd left it.

Pike, then. She didn't flip off the sky, like she would have if it had been her father, though having him watching would have been a kind of relief in itself, just now.

It was probably still better not to tip the others off. Very few people were as sensitive as she was at detecting scrying magic. Then again, most people didn't have to check their luggage for magical blue scrying poop every time they saw their families.

Clearing her throat, she shouted up at Ash, "Hey, you see anything yet from up there?"

"No!" he answered, moving his hand from where he'd been using it to shade his eyes and turning to look down at her, "Just more grass and stuff. But maybe some of this flat stuff will turn out to be farms?"

"We didn't have farms on our list!" Mina said. "Does not seeing farms mean anything?"

Grog shrugged, both kids hanging on just fine as his shoulders moved, like they'd anticipated it. "Not as much as seeing farms would," he answered, "But if we find one, that's people and we can ask them where we are."

"Maybe we'll find a ranch," Mina said thoughtfully, "I think there's ranches in the south somewhere? So then we'd know north is _definitely_ right."

"I'll look for cows!" Ash said, scrambling to his feet on Grog's shoulder and wrapping an arm around Grog's head to stabilize himself. Grog let him, which even Kaylie had to admit was pretty cute. Ash leaned forward, peering into the distance with one hand over his eyes, and Grog moved his arm, ready to catch Ash if he fell.

"Well, alright," Kaylie answered, "I guess we'll just _keep going north_ for now until we _find some kind of landmark_." That might have been laying it on a little thick, but she needed to be sure Pike had heard. The prickling in the back of her neck was still here, so hopefully, Pike was too. The others agreed with her, but she barely heard, too focused on making sure her stepmother was still there.

*****

Pike dug her fingers hard into her knees as the vision started to fade, holding onto it for as long as she could and closing her eyes an instant before she lost it, so no one else would know she had stopped seeing them.

 _Come on, Sarenrae_ , she thought, her hands still tight and her back still straight. _I need you. I - I don't ask you for intervention very often, anymore. Hardly ever at all. But these are my_ kids _and I - I know I wasn't even sure I wanted them before we had them, not like Scanlan was, but you know I've loved Mina since the second I held her, and Ash and Alder since the minute I felt them move inside me. Bring them back to me. If not for me, then for them. Mina's just starting out. She can't ask you like this yet. Not like I can. Not until she's older. But - let her see what you are. And let her see how much I love her._

Her whole heart ached like it was trying to tear its way out of her chest, shredding itself between her ribs.

 _You punched a dragon for me, once. And we needed it then, and we needed_ you _, and - please,_ please _help me._

The holy symbol in her hands was warm. It had been warm as she watched Grog and Kaylie and her babies walking, and it had stayed warm, and it was warm now, but even as it pulsed gently in her hands, she knew what the answer was.

A warm but light breeze brushed over her cheekbones, barely there.

When she'd called out and been protected by the tremendous fist of justice, she'd been terrified. Panicking. Facing down a fearsome beast, with her friends directly in its range.

Now, though - now she'd felt peace before her prayer had even begun. Now, she knew that as much as it hurt to have been torn away from each other, her family was safe. _Now_ , it wasn't the time for that kind of help.

 _I hear you_ , she thought, forcing herself to let go of her knees and slide her hands down to press against the ground, kneeling just a little bit in acknowledgement of Sarenrae's answer. _It's not the time. Grog has them. And you and me and Grog - that's always been a gift, hasn't it?_

The thought was reassuring, but her heart still ached.

 _I'm - I'm going to ask for one more thing anyway, and I hope you'll forgive me for it. I'm - I mean, I'm definitely still scared. But Ash wasn't singing when I listened for him, so he's probably scared, too. And if Mina isn't scared right now, she will be later, and I'd - I've been silly asking for too much. I_ want _you to bring them to me. I_ want _you to fly them right here into my arms, right now. But I'm your champion, and I can find them on the road. I don't want_ anything _as much as I want them safe, and I know if you're_ there _, if you're with Mina and Grog and Ash, and Kaylie if she'll let you, then they will be. I hope it's not rude to change my mind about what I'm asking for,_ she continued, _But maybe it's better now that I'm being - oh, what is it? Temperate. I always forget that one_

 _I'm - I'm about to open my eyes and Scanlan and I are gonna work this out, and we're gonna find them, and we're gonna be - well, I can't promise we'll be temperate about it, but at least I can say I'll try. But if any of this still counts as asking for intervention, I don't need anything big. I just need to know you're_ there _. I need to know you're where they are. Even if it means you're not here.  
_

For just the slightest moment, a burst of air carrying Mina's voice puffed against her ear. "Whoa. Did - did you guys feel that? The sun just got warmer for a second."

Mina's voice was gone again, as soon as it had come, but as Pike pressed her hands into the ground, she felt magic spread out around her and knew Mina had a little extra magic at her fingertips, too.

She opened her eyes to find herself at the center of a 10-foot circle of light, radiating upward and lighting her from underneath.

"Dad, hurry!" Alder shouted, leaping forward and tugging Scanlan with him by the hand.

They rushed into the circle, and Pike got up to her feet, ready to catch them in a hug even though Sarenrae's answer had been no.

"Mama's teleporting!" Ray shouted, "Mama's teleporting!"

Her arms were around her family, stretched as far as she could reach and pressed as tightly together as they could manage, before she fully realized what they thought she'd done.

"I'm not, Ray, baby. I'm not. I was just - I just looked at them. But now we know they're ok. We _know they're ok_."

"Ash and Mina?"

"Yeah, jelly bean. And Uncle Grog and Kaylie."

"Ok," he replied, apparently satisfied.

Alder wriggled out of his parents' grasp, suddenly blushing and awkward as he realized half the temple had turned to look when the light started. Scanlan let go of her and caught Alder around the back of the neck, ruffling his hair and making him squawk in offense.

"I'm not sure what to do next," she said, getting casually between the two as Alder skipped backward out of Scanlan's reach. "They're safe, but we still don't know where they are."

"That's fine," Scanlan said, his grin looking a little more himself now that things were calmer and safer. "I've got more than a few tricks up my sleeve." He winked at her and she rolled her eyes. Somehow he still managed, sometimes, to be that old, annoying, flirty Scanlan, even with their youngest propped on his hip. It was, frankly, a little bit impressive and a lot bit irritating.

"Can you open a big door to anywhere?" Alder asked, "At school we learned really powerful mages can open doors to anywhere, and _I_ said you used to be able to Wish, and that halfling kid Elgin said that was baloney, but the teacher told him off for being mean."

"Did your teacher say what happens when you cast a cantrip with the energy of a 9th level spell?"

Alder's eyes boggled.

"Scanlan-" Pike said reproachfully, shooting him her best mom look, the one she usually only used on Grog because it was overkill for the kids.

He shrugged uncomfortably. "Oh, come on, Pikey. Either it'll work and I'll split a hole in the universe big enough to make Message work like Sending, or it won't and maybe my bit of copper wire gets a little hot."

"Sending!" she gasped, her eyes widening, "I know Sending!" But then she caught up to herself and her heart sank again. "No, I don't. Not until tomorrow."

"What else can you know tomorrow?"

"Planar ally. And I can try to project. I'll need extra help with that, though."

"You can still project?" Alder asked, "I thought that was special for like - I dunno. The end of the world."

"It was," she answered, "But I bet our friends here in town would help us out with this, too."

"I can help this time," Scanlan said. "Or I can go with you! I always wanted to try that. I mean - imagine the possibilities." He wiggled his eyebrows at her, and she found herself smiling in spite of everything.

The withering look Alder gave Scanlan immediately undercut him. " _You're_ not a cleric, Dad."

She laughed, and after a moment, Scanlan did too.

"No, but the stories _I_ tell turn out to be true," he said, "We're gonna make it work."

Alder's face softened. "Alright. Well, if you need to know what Ash would do in your story, I bet I can tell you. Just 'cause we're not _that_ kind of twins doesn't mean I don't know."

Scanlan dove forward and ducked around Pike, managing another hair ruffle before Alder could escape him. "Thanks, slugger!"

Alder yelped as he ducked away, but then he laughed, and Pike's heart lifted. "Dad, stop it! You said we were gonna do research! Maybe there's something else Mom can do that she didn't remember!"

"Or me!" Scanlan answered, faking offense.

Alder looked skeptical. "Come _on_ , Dad! We gotta go to the _library_!" He took off at a run, leaving the rest of them behind.

Scanlan laughed again, rolling his eyes affectionately at their son's retreating back, then leaned over Ray's head to kiss her cheek before they both started off after Alder.

She just hoped they found _something_. They were on their own, and Sarenrae thought they had it covered. That was going to have to be enough.


	2. Chapter 2

By nightfall, Grog and the kids had found a river, which was good for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was clean water, which the kids had run straight into after all the traveling they'd done today. He watched both kids like a hawk, ready to haul them out of the water if they started drowning. He hadn't been in charge of the baby gnomes at the beach before, but they _had_ all gone to Dalen's Closet this year, and he knew after that trip that he had to be careful about them drowning.

Ash splashed water toward Mina and the droplets sparkled through the air, lit by the glow of Mina's light spell, which radiated out from the hilts of several weapons he'd pulled from the bag of holding and jammed into the bank as lanterns.

She shrieked, backing farther into the water, away from him, but she didn't sound frightened.

"Oy!" Kaylie shouted from the bank, "Stay out of the deep, where we can see you!" She muttered an incantation, flicking a hand outward toward Ash and Mina, and sparkles flew out of her fingers. The whole area flashed blue for a moment, and the sparkles landed on Ash and Mina, making both of them glow a light, glittery blue in the darkness.

"Thanks," he told her, "That was a good idea."

"Yeah, well, you just stay ready to dive in after them if you have to, big guy. I see that tension in your shoulders."

A few trips ago, he'd have pretended she was making things up, but this year, she'd looked at him on the beach at Dalen's Closet with Mina and both twins climbing over his shoulders and a couple of quarter-elves dangling from his arms like he was a jungle gym, and she'd called him a softie, and he'd realized he had no real answer to that. He just nodded, knowing she saw too much of him to do anything else.

"Can you make a house, like Scanlan?" he asked, hoping he could at least deflect her.

Kaylie snorted. "No. What am I gonna do with a fancy old mansion like that? I'm not as much of a pansy as Dad, you know."

"Scanlan's not a pansy."

Kaylie looked at him for a moment, calculating. "You keep telling yourself that, Groggo. He's getting old."

"He is not," Grog sniffed, "He's gonna live forever. Him and Pike both. An' they're gonna be ok, because they have each other."

Kaylie's eyes softened and looked sad, and he realized he'd said way too much about _something_ , though he wasn't sure he could put what it was into words. She was as bad as Pike sometimes, with seeing through him and making him think about stuff he hadn't planned to think about.

"Hey, come out of the water," he shouted at the other two, shifting uncomfortably, "I think I can catch us some fish if you stop scaring everything."

Mina roared and swept her arms forward in the biggest splash she could manage, getting Ash back for splashing her, and then some. Ash bolted toward Grog, sloshing out of the water at full speed.

He could sense an argument coming, so he didn't offer Ash an arm to climb up, because then they wouldn't be on even footing and he always thought it was better if they fought fair.

"Can you really?" Ash asked him, ducking around the back of his leg while Mina walked onto the shore more calmly, wringing her hair out. "Even in the dark?"

"I think so. And that leaves more rations from the bag for tomorrow. Just in case."

Kaylie threw bits of old cloth from the bag of holding at both damp kids and sighed. "Yeah, alright, I can help too. But it's gonna make me feel scummy."

"Should I turn the lights out?" Mina asked.

"Can I help?" Ash asked at almost the same time.

Kaylie started scratching patterns in the mud at the edge of the water. "You can help by staying out of my circle." He stepped back out of the area, Ash scrambling to stay behind him, and Kaylie paused, looking up at them. "Not _you_ , Grog, you've gotta stay close to the water, ready to catch."

"Javelin," he said, "All I've got is stuff for spear fishing."

She raised an eyebrow. "Alright, then stay there, ready to _javelin_."

She started singing, the sounds starting out as almost-words, like he was just at the edge of understanding them, and gradually becoming wilder and more foreign and strangely - bubbly? Could a word be bubbly?

Halfway through the song, fish started coming up toward her part of the river, and Grog moved carefully around, trying to get where he could spear one without immediately losing all the others.

At the end of ten minutes, she stopped singing, rubbing her throat, and he stepped back onto the shore with three medium-large fish, more than enough for all four of them. Mina helped clean and Ash helped cook and with the start of the argument between them thoroughly diffused, he could _almost_ pretend they were just camping, and nothing was wrong at all.

*****

There were lots of things Scanlan had never expected out of love. The look on Pike's face as he sat down next to Ray's high chair at dinner and started busily cutting up his food for him before she could do it was one of those things. She read him completely, like she was seeing straight through him, but stepped back from the high chair without judgment or resentment and let him take the task for himself.

Then again, he'd handed Ray over in an instant when they were all in the library together, feeling only a little jealous as Pike pulled him close and cuddled him in her arms. He'd known she needed the reassurance then, just like _he_ needed something to do now _._

He smiled a little sheepishly at her, and she laughed as she asked Alder if he'd learned anything interesting in the temple's slowly growing library.

Alder started recounting a story he'd read, in more detail than was probably strictly necessary, and Scanlan let his mind wander. Pike had checked on the kids. They were fine. Grog and Kaylie were - well, they weren't all the way responsible all the time, but neither was he, so they were probably alright.

He finished cutting Ray's meat and speared some on the fork, holding it out absentmindedly toward Ray and opening his mouth in a broad pantomime of taking a bite.

Ray snapped his mouth shut, making a little grumpy noise. "Ngh."

"Oh," Scanlan said, snapping out of it and turning the handle around so Ray could take that instead, "Sorry, bud. You're big enough to do it yourself. I know that."

He _did_ know that, and Ray _was_ old enough, mostly, and Scanlan's hands were suddenly too empty again. He forced himself to listen to Alder's story, adding in little minor illusions of the details when he couldn't stand not having anything more to do with his hands than eat.

Ray's bath time and both boys' bedtime routines were good diversions, even with all of them instinctively half-looking for Ash at every step of the twins' usual pattern.

Then it was quiet, again, and there was nothing to do, again, and his hands were empty, _again_. He hated it. He'd always wanted distractions. He'd always wanted things to say and do and think about that kept him from dwelling on the bad things, and he'd always been good at amusing himself. His heart wasn't in it, right now, wasn't anywhere but missing with the kids he _hadn't_ just put to bed, and he realized, all of a sudden, that he was shaking.

He couldn't go on like this. Not all night. There was only one thing for it.

Before he could retreat to a quiet part of the house, Pike came up and wrapped her arms around him from behind. He leaned backward into her, tipping his head back onto her shoulder and taking a deep breath, like maybe if he filled his lungs far enough, they'd bump against his heart and he'd know he still had one in there that wasn't all numbness and aching. He wrapped his hands around hers, and at least that felt good.

"You know, I've been thinking about something ever since you said it," she started.

"Yeah?"

"You don't need to Wish."

"You said that."

Her arms tightened around him and she tucked her face down into his shoulder, muffling her voice a little. "I know. But I wanted to say it again."

"Thanks," he said, squeezing her hands. Even half tucked into him, she felt solid and steady behind him, holding him up as he leaned back into her.

"You're a good dad," she said quietly, "Even with Kaylie, after all the time you missed."

"Mmm," he answered, only half agreeing. She'd said it before, anyway, so she probably meant it. "Don't feel like it today, though."

"I know," she said, "But you are. That's not what I meant, though," she said. "Not just today. Not just any one time, all by itself. They're - we've done pretty well, I think. You taught Kaylie a lot, when you guys were traveling together. And Mina and Ash are -"

She paused, and he twisted his head to look at her face.

"I'm not ready to lose time with them," she continued, looking hesitant. "I'm not sure I'll _ever_ be ready. But they're getting older, and they're already - well, you saw Alder once we hit the library. They're not ready to be on their own, but he was so ready to jump in and try to help. They know how to help, and they know how to get along, a little, and - and we've taught them enough to be ok for a night. They're gonna be ok for a night."

Scanlan's heart ached. But Pike was trying, and she was as upset as he was, and he squeezed her hands again as he forced a smile onto his face. "Yeah. And _you_ raised Grog, so at least they've got that."

Pike's laughter against his shoulder was all he'd ever wanted, once, and it was weird thinking they'd built enough together for him to smile at that laugh and still feel like something was missing.

He wiggled out of her arms and turned around, pulling her into a proper kiss. When he stepped away again, she tugged him forward by the back of his head until she could kiss his forehead, and he retaliated by kissing her on the cheek instead of letting her get away.

They both broke into little snorting giggles at once.

"I love you," he said.

Pike grinned. "I know."

Kissing her again was almost a compulsion, but something tight in his chest loosened again when she kissed him back. He pulled away, pressing another swift kiss to her forehead so she wouldn't feel the loss too much. "You go on to bed. I'll join you in a little bit."

Pike squeezed his hand before letting go. "If you mess up my sleep by waking me up when you come in, I'm gonna hit you with a pillow."

"I won't," he held up his free hand, "Scout's honor."

Sometimes, she'd have called him out on not being a scout, something Alder and Ash had both done regularly since they, themselves, became scouts. Now, she just gave a little hum of acknowledgment and went up the stairs to their bedroom.

Scanlan took a deep breath. Half the rooms were full and the house still felt empty. He turned the Ioun stone in his pocket over in his hand, running his fingers along the edges.

"Alright," he whispered to himself, "Alright. Big empty house. Champion of Ioun. Time to go pray or some shit."

He nodded to himself before he moved, taking a deep breath and putting one foot in front of the other until he made it into the too-large too-empty space of Grog's room, built off the back of the house and separated from the second floor in the other half of the building.

He didn't know any of Pike's cleric circles, but he traced out a large, plain circle in chalk anyway, in case it helped. Grog's room was big enough to make it a large circle, keeping him from feeling too pinned-down in it. He placed the Ioun stone in the middle and bit his lip. He was doing this.

He knelt down, not sure whether to touch the stone or not. After a moment, he decided not. Then he decided kneeling was murder on his knees, these days, and rearranged to sit cross-legged on the floor.

"Are you listening?" he asked the room, "I don't have any of this kind of magic, but I thought I'd try anyway, being a Champion and all." He paused. "I mean, you know that, obviously. That this isn't my kind of magic. But still."

There was no answer. "I was really hoping a library would fix all our problems, even if it wasn't yours. Seems like that would be a pretty good Champion perk. In case you were looking for feedback. I basically never use mine. Not like some of the others. You could step up your game, if you wanted. Give me mystical finding-things-in-libraries powers or something."

Great. This was going great. He'd been praying for under a minute and he'd already insulted his goddess.

"Anyway," he said, trying to bluster through it, "I'm looking for knowledge, and if it gets my kids back, I'm willing to trade a lot for it. What do you want? More devotion? Me doing some time in a weird cabin like Sprigg? New song in your honor?"

The room was silent. The stone was dark. He sighed. "Alright."

Pike talked to Sarenrae and got answered, but that probably wasn't useful. Grog went to the temple of Kord and got beaten up until he learned something. Also not useful. But Vex had said one time she'd just waited Pelor out, and maybe that was something. He rearranged again, twisting around to lie on his stomach and stare at the stone.

"I can wait, you know. Pike's the one who needs sleep. I already know the spells I'm gonna know, even without you."

The silence was getting oppressive, "I'm very stubborn," he said, "I'm not gonna back down."

He stared at the stone. He leaned in, letting his eyes cross as he stared at it from too close up. He focused them again. Crossed them. Focused them. Crossed them. One stone. Two stones. One stone. Two stones.

Then his third eye opened, and there were _three_ stones, and he almost jumped. "Holy shit! Ioun?" The stone came back into focus, both glowing and not glowing at once as soon as all three eyes were working together. "This is trippy."

He half-heard a laugh, right at the edge of his hearing.

"Look, you were the one who said you liked making unexpected choices. I could have asked Sarenrae, but you _picked_ me. So this is kind of on you."

The stone brightened a little.

"I need my kids back."

It dimmed.

"I know, I know. I'm a terrible champion. Alright. New negotiation. I want to see them."

It dimmed further. He frowned.

"Look, I _know_ I could have learned spells that were good for this, but in my defense, back when I was working on learning spells, I didn't think I'd have to go scouring the world for my children. I didn't even think I'd _have_ children."

The light stayed the same.

"I just need a hand, here."

It stayed the same.

"Kaylie wouldn't tell me her spells. Maybe _she_ has useful spells. You want me to pass this whole champion thing on to her instead? I could, you know. Or one of the twins. Alder's really into magic these days. Not just, you know, _today_. But today, too. I have real smart kids, you know."

The light dimmed again, nearly going dark, and Scanlan cursed.

He reached for the stone instinctively, and it was warm in his palm when he picked it up. "Look, just give me _something_. I'll be a better champion, I swear."

The door opened behind him, squeaking on its hinges, and he leapt to his feet, his fingers twisting instinctively to cast Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on whatever was coming through it. At the last minute, he realized it was Pike, and shook his fingers out, abandoning the spell and expending the magic uselessly against the floor.

"Scanlan!" Pike looked unreal and ethereal, her hair glowing in the moonlight and her eyes full of light again, one golden and one blue. "I dreamed your eye was open. Why didn't you tell me?" Her voice sounded distant, half-asleep, but she was still _Pike_ , still his wife with her sleep-mussed hair and one old nightgown she threw on to go into any part of the house the kids might be in.

He stepped toward her and a purple glow appeared on her face, a faint beam from his own magical eye.

She took his hands and light burst out of their linked grasp, radiating outward around them and surrounding them in blinding white light. They were floating, timeless and weightless, in the middle of it, and Pike's hands in his felt like the center of the universe, like all the forces of gravity were bound around that one central point between them.

Then the light narrowed, darkness hemming in its edges until he was looking at a single point of light in a field so dark he could see nothing else. It resolved itself into a sword hilt, shining with radiant light. He pulled himself toward Pike, the two of them using their linked hands to draw nearer to each other. They came to a halt, floating over a little camp lit by the single small beacon.

"Grog," Pike whispered, "That's his-" She gasped. " _Mina_. Mina makes light now!"

Scanlan nodded, only half-listening as he took in the view of the little camp. Grog was the most visible person in the circle of light from the sword hilt, but all four of their kids had napped in the middle of his chest often enough as toddlers that Scanlan knew exactly where to look for them. Sure enough, Mina and Ash were curled together, half-sprawled across Grog's chest and using the fur on his pauldron as a pillow. His hand was laid gently over both of them like a blanket, keeping them warm, and Scanlan felt a tickle at the back of his throat and another behind his eyes and nose. Kaylie was propped up against Grog's ribs, asleep sitting up, like she'd been on watch and drifted off, and he wasn't sure whether to be worried about that or not.

Pike fell silent, and he found himself unable to say anything, either. They watched their family's chests rise and fall, breathing evenly as they slept. His own chest ached with not knowing if he was really here or not, but it was a more pleasant ache than the one he'd felt before, and that counted for something.

The light from the sword hilt softened and warmed, going from a pure, bright white to a gentle gold glow that, along with the embers of the fire, lit the sleeping pile without casting harsh shadows. He felt peace wrap around him and them and Pike, all together. It was alright. Mina had made light, but whatever _this_ was was beyond that. The divine was on watch, in one form or the other, and Kaylie could sleep like her siblings. He didn't need to be afraid.

A loud, terrified voice shattered the peace, coming from nowhere.

"Mama! Papa! What's happening?" The vision disappeared in a flash and Scanlan found himself crashing down onto the ground, his hands still in Pike's.

He turned, still a little disoriented, to find Alder in the doorway of Grog's room, his eyes looking wide and shaken. "You were - you were floating. Are you ok?"

Pike let go of Scanlan's hand and stood up. "We're ok Alder. Your dad was just praying, so we could check in on your brother and sisters."

"Holy cow," he said, turning toward Scanlan, "You can _do_ that?"

"He just needed a little help," Pike said, reaching out to help him to his feet as she did. He took her hands shakily and let her haul him upright.

"Jeepers," Alder said, "Did you find anything out?"

"They're ok," Pike answered for him, "They're taking care of each other."

Scanlan was real. He was solid. He was _here_. But he felt dazed, unused to visions and unpracticed in returning from them.

Alder stepped forward tentatively.

Scanlan reached forward and pulled him into a hug and Alder relaxed into the embrace, a relief for both of them.

"You have three eyes," Alder said quietly.

"Yeah," he answered, his voice feeling strangely rusty as he whispered back, even though he'd just been using it before the vision, "That happens sometimes. Not very often."

"Can you see stuff through the third one?"

"Sometimes."

"Is that how you saw Ash and them?"

"Yeah, I think so. It's from Ioun. Sarenrae helped, too, though."

"Are you gonna start floating again?" Alder's voice was gradually raising to a normal volume, and Scanlan followed with him.

"Probably not."

"I wanna learn how to fly someday. With magic. I don't remember if I mentioned."

"Yeah, Ald," he said, "We can work on that. We can - I think we're gonna be going to a lot of libraries for a while."

Alder nodded seriously. "To find the others?"

"After we find them. Repayment."

"And I can learn to fly?"

"When you're older."

He breathed out grumpily through his nose.

"When you're more _powerful_ ," Scanlan corrected. He remembered what it had felt like to be told he was too young.

"Will I get a third eye?"

"Hard to know."

All three of Scanlan's eyes blinked closed, but only the normal two opened again.

"Why can't I see it now that it's closed?" Alder asked.

"Gone, I think," Scanlan answered, "I, uh - I get favors. Not actual full-on god magic."

"Did you ask for Ash and Mina and Kaylie back?"

"Yeah."

"Ok." Alder said it like he was confident. Like an adult. Like he was ready to bluster through and convince everyone around him he knew what was going on.

Alder was growing, dressed in too-short pajamas that had fit a scant few months ago, but he'd looked painfully young in the doorway, with his cold bare feet on the stone floor, his hair mussed, and his eyes frightened. Scanlan held him a little more tightly for a moment, wishing he could believe Alder was ready to bluster though and handle everything like an adult. But wanting to grow up and growing up were different, and all he could see was his little boy, trying.

"Do you wanna stay with us tonight," he asked Alder, "Like when you were little?"

"Did your third eye say I did?" Alder asked suspiciously.

"No."

"Then how'd you know?"

Pike put a hand on his shoulder. "Sometimes parents just know."

Alder grinned sadly at her. "I bet Ash wishes he could, too."

"Uncle Grog has him. And hey! Maybe we'll _all_ have a slumber party tomorrow night."

Alder smiled sadly. "Yeah. Maybe."

Scanlan sighed, letting go of the hug. "Let's go get your brother. There's no reason for him to be by himself tonight if the rest of us are gonna pile into our room."

They grabbed extra blankets and went back up the stairs, then split off. Pike and Alder went to dump the extra blankets onto the big bed while Scanlan pushed open the door to the nursery and scooped Ray up without waking him, lifting him into his arms and letting the dead, sleeping weight of his baby finally, _finally_ make him feel real again. He'd had a vision. He'd come back from it. The kids were alright. As he climbed carefully into bed and let Alder crawl between him and Pike like a scared toddler in a thunderstorm, Scanlan felt normal for the first time since they'd landed in their living room. He fell asleep much faster than he'd expected.

*****

Kaylie woke up to find Mina shaking her shoulder. The light by the water had gone out and the fire had burned down to embers, but the sun wasn't up yet. She groaned. "'S the middle of the night."

"I know." Mina whispered, "But I need your help."

Kaylie sat up, away from the warmth of Grog's side, and stretched, popping her back. "Yeah, short stuff?"

"I want to do a protection spell, before everybody wakes up. I just thought of it. But I need holy water. Do you have something I could put water in to bless it?"

Kaylie blinked, trying to wake herself up. "Wait a minute, wait a minute. Have you just been lying up there worrying about things?"

"Maybe? It's just - I'm a cleric now. Like Mom. And Ash is just a kid."

"Not to stir the pot, but so are you."

"But I'm - that's not the point! You know what I mean!"

Kaylie closed her eyes. Alright. Alright. Responsibility. Mina was suddenly feeling the downsides of responsibility. Stressing about it instead of sleeping, like she needed to if they were going to have any magic tomorrow. That was alright. Kaylie had been there, too. She could work with that.

"Kaylie, come on! I know I can do this!"

Kaylie opened her eyes again with a sigh. "Alright," she said, "Sit down a sec." She flicked her head to the side to indicate a spot next to her against Grog's side.

Mina sat, looking a little confused.

"Alright." Kaylie started, keeping her voice low. "Sister to sister, I'm gonna tell you something, and you can't tell the boys. Yeah?"

Mina's eyes widened and she nodded. "I promise."

"You know my mam's not your mam, and you know I found Dad after Mam sent me away to school to make something of myself that she couldn't, and he got all weird and dadly and now I'm stuck with him. But I think I probably let you think I was real cool and shite, even then, and that's not - _all_ the way true. Don't go spreading that around, but it was hard for me at the time. Not cool at all. Now you're getting all -" she gestured to Mina's whole body, " _you_ and sisterly and older and stuff, I guess you oughta know the way it was, before I was this cool. Just so you don't think it's all easy."

"You weren't cool when you found Dad?"

She laughed, "Well, if you're gonna put it _that_ way, of course I was. I mean, I was _cool_ , but not exactly the way I probably let you think. All the cool was only on the outside. I had to look after Mam, 'cause she couldn't make money like I could and she'd spent everything she had on me already, and that was _hard_. I was still young and all and I didn't know what I was doing, but I knew I had to look after her and send money home. I thought I had to do everything on my own, and when I got through it kind of alright, I just kept thinking I had to do everything on my own. And it scared the shit out of me, and I kept thinking it, and I just pretended it didn't bother me. But it's not true. Not then, and not now."

"No?"

"Nah. Bothered me a lot. But it's alright. It turned out I didn't have to do everything on my own after all. Not in _our_ family, anyway. Dad's a dumbass, but he's always looking out."

"He's not _here_ , though," Mina said softly, frowning. "That's the part I'm worried about. Before Mom and Dad find us."

"Yeah, I know." Kaylie thought for a minute. There was a point here, somewhere, if she could wake up enough to work out what it was. A point other than 'quit worrying and go back to bed.' "Did I ever tell you about the first time I _met_ Dad?" she asked.

Mina's forehead contracted. "No. But Dad says you tried to kill him."

"He ever tell you why I didn't?"

She shook her head. "He just says you decided not to."

Kaylie sighed. "Yeah, well. Guess it's good he didn't tell the rest. I, uh -" She took a deep breath. "Truth is, I was really gonna do it. But then he just - let me."

Mina looked confused.

Kaylie rolled her eyes. "Oh, you know Dad, it was this whole big production, but - well, you know how he is. He ripped his own shirt open, and he told me exactly where to stab him and he said I probably deserved to do it, and some shite about his ego, but he's just - He was just _standing_ there, telling me he hadn't been there for me and here's his heart if I wanna stab it, and I just -"

She took a deep breath and started over. "Look, Mina, here's the truth. I thought I was on my own. I thought I had to do everything myself, and I thought I had nobody but me, and I was almost even right, but I got up on my feet to do this one big thing, this thing I'd been planning for half my life, and he'd known about me maybe a minute and a half, and he was just - helping. Like, 'Alright, if you need anything, I'll help you and if what you need is to kill me, here's a place to stick your sword.' And how was I supposed to - I mean - _gods_ , who does that? I hated it, and I was almost so mad about it that it didn't matter. I don't know if he ever said, but I _did_ stab him a little bit, but then it was - I dunno, it was just too easy, and he was standing there all ready to take it if it helped me, and I hadn't even barely touched his skin with my blade before I knew I couldn't do it. Not for real. Not killing him."

She breathed out heavily through her nose, looking away from her sister's eyes. "I don't want you to be like me, Mina. Not the bad bits. Only the good ones. And if I know any one thing, it's that our stupid, stubborn family is never gonna let you get stuck out on your own, even if you try and make 'em. So I need you to go back to sleep and quit worrying and let me and Grog take care of you, alright? You don't even have to need it. Not all the way. But I need you to trust that we're gonna help you. You did good today, and you're gonna do good tomorrow, and you're gonna trust me and Grog. Right? Deal?"

Mina bit her lip.

"Come on, Min. I'm not asking you to back off or be lame or stop doing all your cool cleric stuff. I'm just asking you to do that _with_ us instead of trying to do it all yourself just 'cause your mam's not here. That's not - there's more to being a cleric than just magicking stuff. Far as I can tell, anyway."

This time it was Mina who looked away. "You won't think I'm - I dunno, too weak, or anything?"

Kaylie nudged Mina in the side. "Hey, kid, you healed your brother up in 12 seconds. Would've taken me longer than that, for a bad break like that. And you got your light spells, and we know if we hit trouble you can Guiding Bolt it right up the butt. No problems. We already know you've got us."

Mina smiled, but still didn't look fully convinced. "Thanks."

"Anyway," Kaylie added, sounding as stern as she could manage, "You still haven't agreed to the deal. You keep my secrets and go back to sleep instead of staying up all night worrying, and me and Grog help you out tomorrow, and we all get home _together_. Yeah?"

She nodded, taking a deep, relieved breath and breathing back out through her nose. "Yeah."

"Good," Kaylie answered. "Now either climb back up by your brother and I'll try not to wake Grog when I come check on you, or go on to sleep down here where I can see."

Mina gave her a calculating look and then grinned sideways, a devilish glint in her eyes. "I mean, I'm pretty sure you _just_ said none of us are supposed to do everything ourselves. I'm not sure I'm gonna learn my lesson if _you_ stay up and keep checking on everybody."

Kaylie snorted. " _I'm_ on watch. It's different."

"You weren't when I came down here."

"You know what?" she asked, too tired to come up with a proper comeback, "Come 'ere-" she telegraphed the movement in advance as she dove sideways to grapple Mina, and her sister scrambled out of the way, laughing a little in surprise.

At the end of a short scuffle that was about as easy as she'd expected it to be, Kaylie gave Mina the gentlest noogie she could manage and turned her loose, ruffling her hair over where she'd ground her knuckles in. "You get stronger and cannier and maybe next time you get to take watch, eh?"

Mina shoved her, shaking her head in fond acknowledgment. "You're so dumb."

"You're dumber."

"Am not."

"Nah, probably not."

Mina laughed, louder this time, then clapped her hands over her mouth to muffle the sound and looked up at Grog and Ash to make sure she hadn't woken them.

Kaylie chuckled, waving her sister back over. "Come on, short stuff. Back to sleep. We can stay next to each other and then whoever wakes up's already checking on the other one. But only 'cause you're getting to be a decently sister-y aged kind of sister. Don't tell Ash I let you share watch, such as it is."

Mina beamed, and the offer was suddenly worth having made it. She leaned her back against Grog's side and laid her head on Kaylie's shoulder without asking, which - actually, was kind of nice. She'd really just been buttering Mina up when she called her a sistery kind of sister, but all of a sudden, she _felt_ it, for real, and she wasn't sure she minded the feeling at all. She leaned her own head against Mina's and looked out over their camp, keeping watch for now.

******

Ash whimpered in his sleep. Grog wasn't sure he'd have heard it, if Ash hadn't been tucked so close to his ear. As it was, he woke up a little bit at a time, increasingly aware of Ash's soft little whines.

Mina had moved from where she'd gone to sleep, but he could feel enough weight pressing against his ribs to know she was down on the ground with Kaylie, so that was alright.

He lifted his hand slowly away from Ash's side and ran his fingers gently up and down the boy's back. When the whining came again, he shook Ash's shoulder instead, and his nephew sat up with his eyes bleary and confused and his hair sticking up on end.

"Uncle Grog?"

"Yeah," he whispered back, "You're ok. But we gotta be quiet so we don't wake the girls up."

"Mama?" he asked, "Is Mama here?"

Grog shook his head. "Not yet. But it's only barely morning. So I bet she's gonna find us soon."

"Oh." Ash sat up, scrubbing at his eyes. "I was really hoping I'd just had a bad dream."

"I think you did."

Ash smiled weakly. "Yeah, I mean, I did that too. I was just . . . hoping _more_ of it was actually the dream."

Grog nodded. "That makes sense. But I'm not gonna let anything else bad happen to you, so whatever you dreamed about isn't gonna happen, yeah?"

Ash stretched, sitting crosslegged in the center of Grog's chest and reaching his arms up toward the sky. "Yeah, I guess so," he answered. He wiggled a little from side to side as he stretched, and Grog felt jealous, trapped between the gnomes where he couldn't move to work out the kinks in his muscles without waking the other two up.

"You need breakfast?" he asked Ash, "I think Pike put some snacks in the bag of holding. And Vex gave us some cake from the bakery."

"I can have cake for breakfast?"

Whoops. "Just don't tell Pike."

Ash grinned, a devilish little sideways smile that reminded him of Scanlan, and slid down over Grog's stomach and onto the ground to grab some cake out of the bag.

He came back with a messy handful of cake and a wrapped chunk of dry traveler's bread, just as Grog was sitting up carefully and trying not to jostle Kaylie and Mina too much.

Ash offered Grog the traveler's bread without being asked and then climbed up to sit on his shoulder.

They ate breakfast in companionable silence as the sky in the east started to lighten, a faint glow turning to brilliant stripes of orange and pink.

Finally, Ash spoke, tentatively. "Uncle Grog, I've been thinking."

"Hmm?"

"Was it a place like this where you saved great-grandpappy Wilhand?"

"What made you think about that?"

"I dunno. Just... was it?"

"No," Grog answered, "It was in the forest."

Ash nodded.

A silence settled over them, but this time it didn't feel as comfortable as before. A shiver he couldn't explain ran down Grog's spine. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, that was a long time ago. And Pike saved _me_ , too, remember? It wasn't just me saving _him_."

"I know," Ash answered, "But you didn't _know_ Mom was gonna save you. How'd you know you needed to save Great-Grandpappy?"

Grog thought for a moment. "It wasn't right, beating on someone that little. It _wasn't_. And he was old and scared and he didn't even do anything. He was just there, and I just . . . _didn't_. And I said 'hey, let's not,' 'cause I didn't want him to get hurt. My uncle didn't like that, but then when they were beating on me instead, that was at least not hitting somebody little, and he could get away, so that was alright. It wasn't - I didn't _choose_ him or nothing. I just did what felt like the right thing. And then it _was_ , 'cause he was alive and I met Pike!"

"What if you don't _know_ what's the right thing to do?"

Ash had always been quiet and thoughtful, like Kiki without the animals or the drinking or the jumping off things. But Grog usually managed to avoid Ash asking him questions he didn't know how to answer. Now, he was stuck. "What are you worried isn't right?" he asked.

"Mina and Kaylie can do magic," Ash said. "And Mina's training like Mom and Kaylie's a bard like Dad, and when we all got separated, they could help. And you met Wilhand and _you_ could help even though you _weren't_ magic. But I can't do anything, and I don't know if I _want_ to be magic, and I'm just - I'm just little and scared and nobody."

"Why don't you want to be magic?"

The question was out of Grog's mouth before he realized he ought to tell Ash he was important, instead, but then Ash was answering him anyway, in a flood of words he didn't want to interrupt.

"Because - because stuff goes wrong! We've been learning about a bunch of stuff in school, 'cause Mom and Dad thought we should learn a little of everything in case we didn't know what we wanted to be when we grew up, and it's just - it makes _sense_ and all, but there's so much stuff that can go wrong! Like with Dad and the teleport. But then everybody else is all -" he waved a hand. "I dunno, Dad Wished everybody into a whole other plane to save you that time you got stuck in that gem, and Mom actually _met_ Sarenrae and _talked_ to her and got her to _punch a dragon_."

Ash seemed upset, but he was talking too fast for Grog to get a word in. "And we got shot out of Dad's spell and stuck here and everybody's trying to rescue us, all three of you and I bet Mom and Dad, and I bet Alder's helping 'cause he's really into all that magic stuff at school, and all _I_ did was get us into this and have a broken wrist and do _nothing_. I didn't even spot the river first! That was Mina! What if I'm just - what if all I am is like Great-Grandpappy and I get in trouble and I can't do anything about it? What if everybody else grows up to be a hero and I'm still just _me?_ "

There was a lot there. A lot he didn't know what to say to. A little bit he did. "Is that what you dreamed about?" he asked, "You were in trouble and nobody helped you?"

Ash frowned. "Yeah," he said quietly. "I mean, not _just_ like that, but I was by myself and everything kept going wrong and I didn't know how to fix it and I couldn't find anybody and everything was really scary. But I already _thought_ about all this stuff, too! What if something happens again and everybody else can help and I'm _always_ like this?"

"Hey," Grog said, keeping his voice as gentle as it would go, "Come down from there so I can look you in the eye."

Ash slid off Grog's shoulder and into his lap, looking confused. He turned around to meet Grog's eyes, though, and that was what counted.

"Wilhand was _important_ ," he said seriously, hoping Ash could feel how much he meant it. "He was different than me an' Pike an' Scanlan, but that didn't mean he wasn't important. Because he didn't just need help and he didn't just bring Pike and he didn't just give up 'cause he wasn't magic and didn't know how to fight. Pike healed all the broken bones and stuff, but Wilhand was the one who said I could stay. I had nowhere to go and nobody to be with and nobody cared about me, and I didn't even really fit into his house, I was so big, but he just looked up at me and said of course I was gonna stay and of course he could make room for me. He told me I would always have a home as long as he was alive. And he was right. 'Cause then I _didn't_ just have nobody. I had Wilhand, and I had my best buddy Pike, and I wasn't alone even though I got kicked out of the herd."

Ash didn't look convinced, all the way, but at least he was listening. Grog kept talking, hoping he'd come around.

"And the other thing was I didn't even have to do anything for it after that first time. Wilhand just said 'ok, I'm gonna make some extra furniture to sell so we can buy more food than we used to' and - and he rebuilt the house with room for me, after it got crushed by the dragon. Even though my uncle tried to kill him _again_. That's important, too. I always had to do exactly what my uncle said, and the one time I didn't, he beat the shit out of me until I thought I was gonna die. But then I got invited in this little tiny gnome's house and I broke stuff and messed stuff up and I didn't know how to be in a city and Wilhand just laughed about it and tried to fix it and said I was ok like I was. So that was important, too. He took care of me after that one time I helped him, and he didn't even want anything in return. And there _have_ to be people like that, or what are the rest of us fighting for, huh? I mean, in the big fights, what're _they_ for? I stopped my uncle 'cause I had to for the town and Vox Machina and Pike and Wilhand, and knowing that made me strong enough to do it."

Ash looked skeptical. "So Grandpappy was important because he was - nice?"

Grog's nose wrinkled, and he thought for a moment. Finally, he worked out why that wasn't right. "Almost. He was important because he was _good_. And he decided to do the right thing, and he had a dream from Sarenrae back when his whole family was bad and he said 'I'm gonna be good now,' and he was. And he made really good furniture. And me an' Pike always had a place to go home to, and we always knew he'd be there, and we always knew he'd care about us."

"What about when he _wasn't_ there? What about when you were apart?"

"He was still Wilhand. He could've been anywhere and he'd still have been Wilhand and we'd still have had somebody waiting for us that was worth going back home to."

"But what if - what if Mom had been like that and not like Mom! What if he hadn't been old and he'd been like that even though he was young?"

Grog had to think for a minute again. "I dunno. I think it still would've been ok. Your Aunt Cassandra didn't leave Whitestone, but Percy could always count on her. And she made it so we could always go back to Whitestone, and that mattered, too. We went back to Whitestone a lot, not just at Winter's Crest. She made sure we had a place to go and the stuff we needed. And then we didn't have to worry about any of that. So that's pretty important, too."

Ash looked thoughtful. "Maybe. I'll - I'll think about it."

"Good."

They settled back into a comfortable silence, broken only by a soft, "Thanks, Uncle Grog," and an answering grunt.

When the sun made it over the horizon, Ash stretched his back, shoulders, and arms again. "I'm gonna wake Mina and Kaylie up," he said, "'Cause I guess at least I can do _that_." He winked as he said it, grinning sideways and Scanlany again, and Grog relaxed a little, sure he didn't really mean the way he sounded like he was being down on himself. " _And_ I'm gonna get them some more cake for breakfast."

"Can I have some cake?"

Ash beamed up at him, already moving toward his sisters and the bag of holding. "Yeah! I'm on it! One big piece of cake, coming right up."

Grog watched him move around the camp, waking the girls gently and getting breakfast started, and he thought if Ash turned out like Wilhand, that wouldn't be bad at all.


	3. Chapter 3

Pike felt divine power humming under her skin even before her eyes opened.

Ray's head was tucked under her chin, and as she opened her eyes, she saw Alder with his face buried in the back of Ray's neck. Scanlan's arm was thrown over both boys, his fingers just an inch away from her side, resting on top of Ray's ribcage.

All three of them looked peaceful, and in spite of the energy buzzing within her, she paused for a moment to watch them breathe.

They had all been upset yesterday, and when she woke them up and Ash and Mina still weren't here, they would be upset again. Scanlan hadn't even been hiding it well, yesterday, or at least not to his _usual_ standard, and any time he let his face slip, Ray got upset.

Maybe she wouldn't wake them up at all. Maybe she'd just leave them to their peace for a little while longer.

Ray's fingers were clenched in the fabric of her nightgown, so she peeled them gently away before scooting carefully backward toward the edge of the bed.

It was easier to sneak around, now that she rarely had cause to wear armor. She made it all the way out of the bed and halfway around it before she tripped over one of Scanlan's shoes, lost her balance, crashed into the side of the bed, and jostled it enough to wake Alder.

He sat up, his eyes looking bleary and confused, and the motion drew a little fussing noise from Ray and woke Scanlan, who groaned and squeezed his eyes shut tighter.

"Mama?" Alder whispered.

"Yeah, baby. I've got the spells we need. Come help me write some messages. We only get 25 words."

Alder's eyes widened as he put the pieces together, and then he was wriggling energetically out from between his father and brother.

Scanlan scooted forward into the empty space and pulled Ray into his arms, where the boy settled back into peaceful sleep again, never quite waking up.

In the early morning light, Alder helped her make coffee and start toast, asking questions about the limits of Sending and helping her work out how they could make it most useful.

In any other circumstance, it would have been nice. She and Scanlan made a point of trying to do things with the twins separately, on occasion, so they didn't feel like they were always stuck as a package deal, but it had been a while since she'd had some one-on-one time with Alder. All their kids were growing up fast, and Alder was quick and clever, getting more confident all the time.

By the time Scanlan and Ray woke up for real and Scanlan came into the kitchen for some coffee, they'd finished their toast and she was making bacon at the stove while Alder took dictation and counted words for her.

Scanlan's eyes looked brighter today, and there was a bounce to his step there hadn't been yesterday. Ray was relaxed in his arms, with none of the discomfort he'd shown yesterday when Scanlan wasn't acting like himself.

Scaanlan practically waltzed up to her, kissing her on the cheek before snagging a coffee mug off the counter beside her, where she'd left it out for him.

"We've almost got Mom's Sending message done!" Alder said, "We're just two words over. Can you come look?"

Scanlan redirected immediately, moving over to the table with his mug still empty, and leaned over Alder's shoulder to read. "Easy," he said, "Take out 'it's Pike.'" He looked up at her, "Grog will know your voice, even if he's not expecting it."

Alder's nose scrunched. "Oh. Yeah. I guess so. I - should have thought of that."

Scanlan laughed and dropped a kiss to Alder's forehead, "You got the rest of it. You gonna write a message to your brother?"

Alder shook his head. "Mom can do it more than once, but we wanted to leave plenty of magic for other stuff, just in case. We decided Uncle Grog was best to talk to, because then nobody thinks it's unfair. And we thought we'd better wait until there was already a planetar here, so we could be sure."

Scanlan nodded, looking over the message again. "This is good, Pickle. This is gonna work."

"Yeah, I talk pretty good too, sometimes," she joked.

When Scanlan laughed, his smile was very, very, _very_ nearly his own, and she doubted even the kids could see the forgery.

"And then Mom's gonna actually _summon_ the planetar," Alder explained, "But she says we gotta work out what to offer it, first, 'cause they're gonna need payment."

Scanlan's eyes twinkled. "Ahhh, negotiations! Sounds like a job for the Meat Man!"

Alder looked skeptical. " _Kaylie_ 's the Meat Man."

"Ahh, but why do you think it's the Meat _Man_ and not the Meat _Woman_? I'm planning to leave all of you a little more than my rakish good looks." The eyebrow wiggle at the end was familiar and reassuring, and Pike turned back to finishing breakfast, the restless itch under her skin growing a little more bearable as the soothing patterns of her family surrounded her.

"Ok, well, I don't really need an inheritance for a while, so I guess we can give that to the planetar?"

Scanlan slapped the table. "Wait! Gods, Pickle, why didn't we think of it? I can _be_ a Planetar. Then I can go look for an hour, and if that's not long enough, you summon another one."

She turned around again to find Scanlan almost _glowing_ with excitement, fully and 100% his old self for the first time since they'd touched down. She laughed, and he did too, and then once both of them had broken down, Alder and Ray laughed too.

"And you thought you needed a Wish," she teased.

"Nah, I got everything I could Wish for," he said, casually and with a wink, like he was still trying to flirt his way into her heart, and she reached out and grabbed his hand just for the heck of it.

"I'll Send to Grog right now. We'll have breakfast when you get back. And I can project over to you if you need me to."

"At the end of the hour," he said, already growing taller and bluer, "If I'm not already home."

"I'll fix the message!" Alder said, already scratching things out. Pike turned off the stove and stepped to the table to read over his shoulder.

As comforting as it had been having everyone together in the kitchen, it was more comforting still to watch them spring into action.

She wasn't good at waiting, but she could manage an hour, if it meant Scanlan searched faster. And she could prepare for her own leap into motion.

Scanlan's powerful wings beat once and he was sweeping out the door and up into the sky.

******

Grog felt better about today's walk, which almost balanced out his disappointment that Pike and Scanlan hadn't magically shown up overnight. Following the river was easier than trailing north through the plains had been, and more pleasant, and at least it felt like they were _going_ somewhere now that they had something to measure their progress by. Grog kept one eye ahead of them and one on the gnomes as Ash and Mina splashed through the shallows.

He almost jumped when he heard Pike's voice in his head. _Hi, Grog! Keep your eyes out for a planetar! Scanlan's coming to find you, and then he'll be able to get you home to us._

"Pike!" he shouted, "Where are you? You're not in the earring!" he turned to the kids, who had stopped in their tracks to stare at him. "We've gotta look for a planetar," he told them, "It's like a big blue angel. Pike! How do we find you?"

He didn't get an answer. He didn't see a planetar. He stood still, looking frantically around them.

"I've got this!" Kaylie said, "Gods, I hate doing this, 'cause it's so - Dad. But I've got this. I'll go look."

Her body started to twist and shift, and all of a sudden she was a giant eagle. She leapt into the air with a shriek.

Ash and Mina sprang out of the shallow water and scrambled up his side to stand on his shoulders, dripping water down his chest as they craned their necks to look up into the sky.

Kaylie rose astoundingly fast, rocketing upward as quickly as she could. He hoped she could see better up there. He couldn't see _anything_ , but his heart was racing, now. Pike was coming! Pike was going to find them! He reached his hands up to steady the little gnomes on his shoulders and kept looking.

He spotted Scanlan when he was little more than a dot in the sky, and his heart lifted. "I told you they'd come!" he said, pointing Scanlan out to the kids. Just a few more minutes of being Responsible Uncle and he could go back to being the _fun_ uncle. He grinned broadly and reached up to steady the kids as he spun in a celebratory circle, making them shriek with glee.

******

Scanlan's eyes scanned the ground. He was pretty sure planetars were only supposed to have two, but if getting his head out of his own ass and remembering the spells he _did_ have was enough for Ioun to give him a third one, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The wind rushing around him howled a little bit too much like the teleportation storm had, but he was moving, now, and he was _Scanlan Shorthalt_ , and he wasn't about to let a little thing like wind stop him. He _wasn't_. He started humming loudly to himself to drown it out, even though his current body was built more for telepathy.

He was looking for rivers in the midst of the plains, and he found himself locking onto one almost immediately, the water catching the sunlight and sending it glinting back up like a beacon. His eyes felt sharper, his vision quicker, and as he turned to fly toward it, he sped up, tucking his wings in and cutting through the air like a bullet until he got too low and had to flap back up again.

He was about to give up on this river and fly higher in hopes of seeing another one, when something else in the sky, wheeling over the river downstream, caught his attention. He decided to keep going far enough to check it out and dropped into another long, bullet-fast glide. He hoped checking it out wasn't wasting his polymorph time, but he couldn't just leave it, either.

The thing raced toward him. It was a little slower than he was, but seemed somewhat more aerodynamic, which he'd have to be careful with. He got ready to swing an angel sword, but then the thing resolved itself into a giant eagle and let out a cry that was clearly directed toward him, flapping backward jerkily, as if to gesture toward the river.

"What?" he called to it, flying closer.

The bird wheeled, squawking again, and he followed it, stopping once he'd made it into the center of its circle.

He looked down, but before he could fully take stock of the ground below him, the eagle blasted forward and bit his ear, pulling at it hard and starting to fly down toward the river with his ear still in its beak.

 _Kaylie?_ he asked, using his planar telepathy for once.

_Who else, numbnuts? Come on!_

He shoved at Kaylie's beak, getting her to let go of his ear as he flew down alongside her. _Are you alright? How are Ash and Mina? Is anybody hurt?_

_What'd'ya take me for, Dad? They're fine. I took care of them._

_Is everybody together?_

_If you quit waiting around for me and just_ fly, _we_ will _be._

He nodded, dropping into a steep dive toward the shoreline and outpacing her.

Grog's booming voice was audible first, as he shouted "Scanlan, we're down here! Down here!"

The kids were standing on Grog's shoulders, waving excitedly up at him, and he was so busy drinking in the sight of them that he almost crashed into the ground at the end of his dive, pulling up just barely in time and landing considerably more awkwardly than Kaylie did a moment later. She hopped out of her polymorphed form just above the ground, like dropping the spell and landing on her feet was nothing.

Grog had his arms around Scanlan before he could let go of the polymorph, and Scanlan was surprised to find that even in his planetar shape, Grog's hugs still made him feel small.

Mina and Ash wrapped their arms around him as much as they could and he dropped the spell, aching to hold them in his own, real arms. As he shrank, Grog's grip on the three of them got a little shaky and he deposited them all carefully onto the ground.

Scanlan opened his arms as wide as he could, but Ash and Mina still elbowed each other as they rushed to get into the hug. He pulled them closer, tucking his head between their faces before they could start arguing and squeezing them tightly against him.

Ash tucked his head against Scanlan's shoulder, and Mina wormed her arm out from between her brother and father and grabbed onto his shirt next to Ash's head instead. Scanlan bent his head to rest it on Mina's shoulder and breathed into the hug, the warm air filling up his chest as his heart swelled, full and happy.

"Are you guys ok?" he asked.

Both of them started talking at once, a mile a minute and on top of each other. There was something about magic and wrists and fish and furniture, and he couldn't follow it even though both kids were shouting directly into his ears. It didn't matter. He didn't need to. _They were ok_.

He wanted longer arms, or possibly _more_ arms, but he had neither, and Grog was looming in front of them, watching, and Kaylie was behind him, and he eventually made himself let go of the hug, placing one hand on each of the kids' cheeks to check that they were as ok as they'd said they were.

They seemed fine. They _were_ fine. It was _ok_. He took a deep breath and let it out too fast, relieved.

Kaylie punched him in the back of the shoulder. "Took you long enough! You're getting old, old man."

When he turned around, she was already holding her arms up, and they pulled each other into a quick, tight hug she released after only a breath, making him feel weirdly detached in the aftermath.

Before he could answer or pull her into a second hug, Grog was picking him up again, wrapping him up in a gentle but suffocating hug, now that everyone else had gotten the chance. "How's Pike? Is everybody ok? I tried to ask where she was, but she didn't answer."

"She's fine, Grog. We made it home. And now I'm here to get the rest of you."

He wiggled to be put down, and Grog set him down in the middle of his kids.

Mina reached out and took his hand and he was struck, as he squeezed it reassuringly, by how different she was from her sister. It had been an adjustment, having a cuddly little girl and a prickly big one, but now - well, now it was nice to know she hadn't grown completely out of it. Ash looked nervous, biting his lip and not quite looking at anyone.

Scanlan furrowed his brow, "What's wrong, Asher?

Ash blushed, looking down at the ground. "Do we have to teleport again?" he asked.

Oh. _Oh_. Scanlan's chest felt tight. "Yeah, kiddo, we do. Otherwise, your mom's gonna send out the cavalry."

"It's ok," Grog said, "Now there's only -" he paused, concentrating. "Four of you. So I can keep ahold of everybody the whole time, if you want."

Ash looked so relieved that Scanlan found himself agreeing before he could think it through. "Yeah, I think that works! The kids can hold onto me, and you can hang onto all of us, and we'll go like that."

Then he thought about it. He'd worked hard to be able to do the somatic components of his spells with his hands full, in part so they could do this in their regular circle. It should work. And if it didn't seem to be working, he could drop it before anything bad happened and he'd still have the energy to cast it again. That was good. Encouraging. They were gonna be fine.

"I can hold onto you, too," Mina said, "Or Kaylie can."

Ash smiled, clearly relieved. "Yeah, ok."

By the time they were ready, it was hard to imagine any of them slipping away or getting lost. Scanlan was pressed against Grog's chest, with Ash's arms wrapped around his waist and Kaylie and Mina holding tightly to his shoulders with one arm each, their other arms wrapped around Ash. Grog's huge arms surrounded all of them, his hand wrapped around Scanlan's ankle just in case, and as Scanlan took a deep breath before he started casting, he felt everyone else's arms shifting as his chest rose and fell.

The spell was quick, and quiet, and easy.

It was almost unfair.

******

Pike leaned against the counter, mixing pancake batter that hadn't actually needed any more mixing for at least ten minutes. Alder was playing with Ray, rolling a little wooden cart back and forth from the opposite side of the table, and every rattling trip from end to end was just more time Scanlan had been gone.

She wasn't _used_ to sitting around waiting. She didn't do it much. She wasn't sure she'd done it at _all_ since she was pregnant with Ray and stuck on bed rest.

She stirred the batter again. It didn't change.

The toy cart rattled across the table. Ray stopped it with his hand and pushed it back toward Alder.

Stir. Rattle. Stir. Rattle.

The rest of the family appeared out of nowhere, arriving in the kitchen with a loud pop, and Pike almost dropped the pancake bowl in her hurry to put it on the counter.

Alder was faster than she was, on his feet and rushing toward his twin before she had even finished counting the figures in Grog's arms.

Grog dropped to his knees to put the rest of the family down, and the twins rushed to each other and wrapped themselves into a big hug, chattering at each other in the hug without bothering to take turns or finish their sentences all the way.

"Mama!" Mina came straight for her and she caught her daughter in her arms, cradling the back of Mina's head as the girl tucked her face into her shoulder.

Everything had happened so fast, her mind hadn't caught up with it, but the moment she was holding Mina, the full force of having her family back together hit Pike hard enough that if she hadn't been in such a tight embrace, she might have wobbled on her feet.

"Are you alright?" she asked, unable to think of whatever question it was she really meant. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah! Yeah, Mama! We're ok. Are _you_ ok?"

"We're great, baby!" Pike realized she was laughing, but she couldn't stop.

"I did cleric magic, Mama! I healed Ash and I made light!"

"Good job, Mina! I'm proud of you!"

She _was_ proud, but everything was still so immediate and overwhelming that saying so was more habit and instinct than anything else, the words making their way out of her laughter almost on their own.

When Mina extricated herself from Pike's grip and went to say hello to (and check on) Ray, Ash rocketed over to take her place, flinging himself into her arms so hard he almost knocked her over.

She caught him, and he buried his face in her shoulder, suddenly crying out of nowhere.

She hugged him tighter and ran her fingers through his dark hair, her laughter stopping just as abruptly. She pressed a kiss to the top of his head. "It's ok, baby. You're home now. We're all ok."

"I'm sorry I let go, Mama!" he said, still crying, "I didn't mean to!"

"I know, baby. I didn't mean to, either. It was just an accident."

"It's my fault we got stuck!"

Pike raised her eyebrows at Scanlan, over Ash's head, silently asking for help with this one. "It's not, Ash. I know it feels like it, but it was just an accident."

"I'm _sorry_."

She checked the impulse to tell him it was her own fault that their hands had slipped, to tell him her heart had almost stopped in her chest the moment it happened. But there was no use fighting over blame, even if telling Ash it wasn't his fault might help. There was no use dragging out the worrying, when he was _here_ and _safe_ and back in her arms again. It was now that mattered.

Scanlan stepped around Grog, who was sitting on the kitchen floor with his legs stretched out in front of him while Ray crawled all over his chest and shoulders. Her husband wrapped his arms around her and their son, sandwiching Ash in the middle. "It's ok, kidlet," he said, "We'd never have left you out there alone. Your mom's pretty badass, you know. She was gonna project over there if I didn't find you fast enough."

Ash sniffled. "Really? I thought that was just for, like . . . the end of the world."

Pike brushed the hair off Ash's forehead. "Well, I'd say the only thing I'm better at saving than the world is our family. Don't you think so, Scanlan?"

He smiled. "Every time."

Ash calmed down a little bit at a time, still clinging tightly to her, and Pike just led him over to a chair and let him sit in her lap like he was still Ray's age. Alder and Mina started filling each other in on everything they'd missed, and Kaylie hip checked Scanlan on her way to make the breakfast Pike had abandoned, loudly and unconvincingly calling him useless. The kitchen was warm and full, and even with her son still sniffling on her lap, Pike's heart was, too.

She took a long, deep breath, and her lungs filled more easily and fully than they had since the teleport. Ray finally climbed off of Grog and came over to Pike, taking in Ash's position on her lap. He reached forward and hugged his brother's legs, and Ash laughed, still a little teary, but getting better. Grog stood up, crouching just a little under the ceiling, and when she realized he couldn't hug her with Ash and the chair in the way, she reached out a hand and he grabbed it. "I'm glad you got us back," he said, "My way was gonna be slower."

"You're out of syrup," Kaylie announced, stepping into the middle of the conversation and prompting Grog to let go of Pike's hand. "So we're gonna have to put jam on the pancakes. I like raspberry." She thunked the plate down in the middle of the table and set a jar of raspberry jam next to it.

"I'll get blackberry!" Alder exclaimed, "And honey!" He was on his feet and out the door in a flash, and his twin took the opportunity to get down off Pike's lap and claim the chair next to her instead. Ray scrambled up happily to take Ash's place, and Pike found herself laughing again.

As their family tucked into the pancakes, arguing over the jam and the one jam spoon and the one jam knife and getting their fruit-sticky fingers all over each other and the jar and the utensils and the table, the energy in the room mellowed, settling into something calm and familiar and right.

For a moment, she just breathed in the peace and relative calm. But then the arguing between Ash and Mina started to get a little bit genuinely tense, as Mina complained that he'd dribbled honey across her arm and now her sleeve was all sticky. That wouldn't do. Even without the fighting, she couldn't help wanting just a little more time embracing the joy of being together, before they calmed down into it like being together wasn't some kind of minor miracle. And with the fighting? Impossible. Ungrateful. Not right.

She caught Grog's eye and winked before flipping a spoonful of jam at Scanlan's face, hitting his cheek and the side of his jaw.

Both twins shouted in surprise, but Scanlan's eyes sparkled into hers as he realized what she'd done, and he responded almost immediately. She dodged the quarter-pancake he flung at her without much trouble, but Grog roared melodramatically anyway, shouting "I'll protect you, Pike!"

Kaylie was already on her feet, grabbing a canister of flour off the counter. "Run, Dad, I'll make you a smoke screen!" She flung a handful of flour into the air in front of Grog, letting it drift to the ground in what was less 'smoke screen' and more just 'mess.' Ray shrieked with laughter, even as his siblings looked confusedly at each other.

The toddler on Pike's lap grabbed a handful of jelly and smeared it down Ash's arm, and all of a sudden, everyone was in on the food fight, getting up and diving behind chairs, flinging flour and sugar and jam and chunks of pancake, and, once Alder noticed them on the counter, eggs, which smashed delightfully and made the flour stick to people almost as well as jam did.

The room felt joyful again, the whole family shouting and laughing and getting in the way of flying food for each other, and Pike let the energy of it fill her heart to the top.

"Wait, wait!" Grog shouted, "Scanlan, toss that into my mouth! I bet I can catch it!"

The twins wrestled through a smeary mess of jam and flour, shouting as they tried to crush eggs on each other's heads. Mina's hands moved carefully in the pattern for a blessing, but the water she could reach in the sink wasn't holy and without that component, the spell didn't do anything but splash both boys and turn them against her, instead of each other. She shrieked melodramatically and dove behind Kaylie, who had concentrated very hard and sent a set of 10 plates spinning through the air with minds of their own to act as shields for whoever she felt needed them at any given moment.

They fought out the excitement and then the pent-up worry from the day before, until they'd gotten all of it out and Ray crawled under the table to put his head down on his arms and take a nap, right there in the middle of their gritty, sticky, food-spattered kitchen. Kaylie cautiously put down her remaining animated plates and Mina cast Sanctuary over Ray, cleaning the back of a spoon against her shirt to use as a silver mirror. All of a sudden, the fight was over.

For a moment, they all stared at each other. Scanlan looked over the lot of them, and his eyes started to twinkle again, making some kind of decision, though she didn't know what until he crawled under the table, too. "Good idea, Ray-way. I think we've all had a busy day."

It was 10 am, and it wasn't time to be tired yet, and she was tired anyway, down to her bones. But she wasn't the only one. Grog pouted, asking "Hey, why can't we nap where I fit?"

That was - ok, too, she decided. There were days to do the normal things, to get up and eat and bathe and go to work and school and behave themselves. But then there were days when miracles happened, when her family was together after being apart, when the only thing she could make herself want was for them all to be happy together.

"Blanket fort in the living room?" she suggested.

Ash and Alder both lit up. "Blanket fort in the living room!" they shouted together, already running across the dirty floor and tracking the mess into the next room.

Scanlan groaned. "But I'm so comfy here already!"

"I got you," Grog said, pulling both Scanlan and Ray out from under the table by their feet and scooping them into his arms so he could carry them to the living room. Scanlan laughed, complaining that it wasn't necessary, but Grog made little half-grumpy humphing noises and carried him anyway. As he passed Mina, she stepped onto his foot and wrapped her arms around his leg, and he laughed, losing the last of his feigned grumpiness, and kicked that leg extra high as he walked the rest of the way into the living room, like he had when she was smaller and had gone for the same ride.

Kaylie looked surreptitiously over her shoulder, winked at Pike, and prestidigitated the mess off both of their clothes. Pike laughed and reached over to rub Kaylie's shoulder in thanks as they trailed behind the rest of the family. She closed the kitchen door on the mess, a problem for later, and joined her family in building a fort big enough to pile into together.

"We can clean up after lunch," she said softly to Scanlan, as they all settled down into it for their nap.

"Oh," he said, vaguely, "Nah. I'll get my unseen servant to do it."

There were things they'd meant to do today, places they'd meant to go and people to see now that they were back in town, but none of that felt real, somehow.

The fort was small and warm and cozy, a far cry from the Magnificent Mansion they slept in while they were traveling now, or the tents they'd used when she and Vox Machina were still young. She curled up with her family and let Mina use her shoulder as a pillow, while the rest of the world faded away outside their little fort. It was good to be really, truly, _finally_ home, all together.


End file.
